Comparitive Argumentive essay on the primary text of the Canadian

Comparitive Argumentive on the primary text of the Canadian Dream - Essay Example There is a great Canadian dream that is related to the aspect of immigration. Both of these texts are involved with this dream though in different ways. It is this aspect that brings about the main difference between the texts. In both texts, there are immigrants who gain entry into the Canadian land. Each of them is astonished and overwhelmed by what they see and encounter. In this sense, they are both driven by the Canadian dream to afford the lives of the inhabitants hence make their future in the new land better. They also have similar experiences. However, they handle these experiences in different ways hence accomplishing the Canadian dream in completely varied ways. Thus, while others are able to realize this dream fully, there are others who are not able to do so based on the different ways that they work towards it and against the oppression that they face as they try to adapt into the new ways. The Canadian dream was created for those who were moving from Canada to other new places. It made use of the term ethnic, which was used to refer to all those individuals who have become immigrants but are not members of the founding cultures in Canada. They include those who are not the catholic French or the protestant Anglo-Celtic. In addition, the term ethic was also used to involve all those aboriginal inhabitants of Canada, the native Indians as well as the Inuits, who have always kept their distance and alienated themselves from the Canadian society. The main aim was to bring about personal development and prosperity for the individuals. It was clear that any immigrant from Canada to other areas would feel pressured to adapt to most of the new ways that they experienced in the new areas. However, despite their ability to learn new ways, it was advisable that they do not get fully assimilated in the new ways but also try as much as possible to hold on to their previous ways an d not forget

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Essay Example for Free

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Essay Hello fellow classmates, today I’m going to inform you on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Alcohol abuse is due to many factors, including how you were raised, your social environment and your emotional health. American Indians and Native Alaskans are more likely to develop alcohol abuse, also people who have a family history of alcoholism or heavy drinkers are more likely to develop some sort of drinking problem. People who suffer from mental health problems such as anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder are at risk because alcohol may have been used to self-medicate Alcohol abuse effects society in many ways including more people getting divorced, domestic violence problems, unemployment and even living in poverty, also if you have children they are effected the most as they are sensitive and are most likely to suffer from long-lasting emotional trauma because a parent or caretaker is an alcohol abuser Many people experiment with drugs for different reasons. Many people try drugs for the first time because they are curious; think they’re going to have a good time, because everyone around them is doing it including friends, others do it to enhance athletic performance or to ease other problems such as stress, anxiety or depression. Some may think using drugs automatically leads to abuse but it depends on the individual. Drug Abuse isn’t about how much you take or how frequently you take it, it’s about the consequences from taking the drug, if it’s causing problems at home, school, work or even relationships, it’s possible you have a drug abuse problem. Drug abuse affects society in many different ways such as, neglecting your responsibilities at school, work or home, causing problems in your relationships such as fights with your partner, family member or friends We need to change the way Alcohol and Drug abuse affects not only society but the abusers, because it is unfaithful to God’s teachings as he never wanted us to abuse anything in anyway shape or form. God’s love for everyone is so strong and powerful that he doesn’t want you to get hurt because you feel the need to abuse Alcohol and especially Drugs The solution to these problems is depending on there condition. Most abusers can control there use therefore and easy solution for them is moderation, for example setting limits and using there will power, but if that doesn’t work they need to obtain counselling, which will help them with different strategies in coping with all there emotions, but if someone is a social drinker because they have a low self-esteem, they can get psychological help to feel better about themselves so they don’t have to drink So we need to spread the word of god to start decreasing the number of people who abuse drugs and alcohol

John Donnes Unusual Conceits: Bizarre Imagery or Thoughtful Comparisons? :: Biography Biographies Essays

John Donne's Unusual Conceits: Bizarre Imagery or Thoughtful Comparisons?      Ã‚  Ã‚   What exactly do a flea and the intense emotion of love have in common?   Does the sun ever intrude upon you and your lover while in bed?   To most people these questions would draw nothing but quizzical or blank stares followed by perhaps a referral to one psychologist or another.   However, if one asked a certain young minister from seventeenth century London the same questions, he would have suddenly become inspired.   This exceptional personality was the metaphysical poet John Donne.    Many people debate whether Donne's metaphysical style of verse is genuinely contemplative comparison or merely eccentric imagery.   However, if one looks deep enough into the witty his witty works such as, "The Sun Rising," or "The Flea," they will find evidence to support both views.   It has been said of Donne's love poetry that it was "losing itself at times in the fantastic and absurd" (Grierson 25).   By using his unusual conceits, or far-fetched metaphors, John Donne utilizes his remarkable ability to draw a wistful sigh of love from any reader while shocking and twisting brain cells at the same time.   It is this innovative method of combining such passion and great intellect that entices poets like T. S.   Eliot to imitate him and others like Samuel Johnson to criticize him.    One example of John Donne's words coming off as a thoughtful and indeed intriguing comparison is presented in "The Sun Rising. "   In this composition, Donne proclaims in a conceit, " She is all states, and all princes, I, Nothing else is" (Line 21-22).  Ã‚   By this he is so boldly declaring that he and his own love are the center of the universe and all that is important (Carey 109).   He goes on to tell the "unruly sun," "This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere" (Line 30).   By these lines we can see that Donne is portraying love as an all-empowering emotion.   He is telling us that being in love signifies a completeness, an obsession that makes all else negligible.      When the speaker asserts to the sun, "If her eyes have not blinded thine; Look, and tomorrow late, tell me, Whether both the Indias of spice and mine Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me," (Line 15-18), he is masterfully showing both his loves' superiority and the sun's inferiority. John Donne's Unusual Conceits: Bizarre Imagery or Thoughtful Comparisons? :: Biography Biographies Essays John Donne's Unusual Conceits: Bizarre Imagery or Thoughtful Comparisons?      Ã‚  Ã‚   What exactly do a flea and the intense emotion of love have in common?   Does the sun ever intrude upon you and your lover while in bed?   To most people these questions would draw nothing but quizzical or blank stares followed by perhaps a referral to one psychologist or another.   However, if one asked a certain young minister from seventeenth century London the same questions, he would have suddenly become inspired.   This exceptional personality was the metaphysical poet John Donne.    Many people debate whether Donne's metaphysical style of verse is genuinely contemplative comparison or merely eccentric imagery.   However, if one looks deep enough into the witty his witty works such as, "The Sun Rising," or "The Flea," they will find evidence to support both views.   It has been said of Donne's love poetry that it was "losing itself at times in the fantastic and absurd" (Grierson 25).   By using his unusual conceits, or far-fetched metaphors, John Donne utilizes his remarkable ability to draw a wistful sigh of love from any reader while shocking and twisting brain cells at the same time.   It is this innovative method of combining such passion and great intellect that entices poets like T. S.   Eliot to imitate him and others like Samuel Johnson to criticize him.    One example of John Donne's words coming off as a thoughtful and indeed intriguing comparison is presented in "The Sun Rising. "   In this composition, Donne proclaims in a conceit, " She is all states, and all princes, I, Nothing else is" (Line 21-22).  Ã‚   By this he is so boldly declaring that he and his own love are the center of the universe and all that is important (Carey 109).   He goes on to tell the "unruly sun," "This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere" (Line 30).   By these lines we can see that Donne is portraying love as an all-empowering emotion.   He is telling us that being in love signifies a completeness, an obsession that makes all else negligible.      When the speaker asserts to the sun, "If her eyes have not blinded thine; Look, and tomorrow late, tell me, Whether both the Indias of spice and mine Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me," (Line 15-18), he is masterfully showing both his loves' superiority and the sun's inferiority.

Jack Sparrow Ca

Jack Sparrow Character Analysis. The Pirates of the Caribbean film series is one of the most popular film series to run its course through theaters in recent years. Action, adventure, and romance are some of the things we come to expect when we sit down to watch these amazing film adventures. But one of the things we can rely on most is the presence of Captain Jack Sparrow. While Sparrow was conceived to be only a supporting character, he proved to be popular after he was added into Disney’s theme park ride that spawned the movie series.Of course, a character as â€Å"far out† as Captain Jack had to be played by someone equally out-there: Johnny Depp. First we’ll talk about how Depp got into the role of Captain Jack and then I will analyze how Jack is portrayed as a character. In 2001, Depp was at Walt Disney Studios looking to do a family film. However, the fact that the Pirates theme park ride was going to be adapted into a film caught his attention first.Depp looked at the movie adaptation as a chance to revive his favorite movie genre,  and he was even more pleased when he found out the script fit his personality perfectly: a quirky pirate looking for adventure and in the end, showing he has a soft side. Depp was cast on June 10, 2002. Producer  of the series Jerry Bruckheimer  said that Depp was â€Å"an edgy actor who will kind of counter the Disney  Country Bears  soft quality and tell an audience that an adult and teenager can go see this and have a good time with it. When the cast got together for their read-through of the script, Depp surprised everyone by portraying the character in an off-kilter manner. After Depp did some research of his own on 18th century pirates, he compared the swashbucklers to modern rock stars and said he would base his performance on  Keith Richards. In a comic follow-up, Richards would later appear in two cameos as Jack's father,  Captain Teague, in  At World's End  and  On Stranger Tides. Director Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer had confidence in Depp, in part because Orlando Bloom would be playing the traditional â€Å"hero† character in the series.Depp also improvised the film's final line, â€Å"Now, bring me that horizon†, which was writer Ted Elliot’s favorite line. Disney executives were, at first, confused by Depp's performance. Some even asked him whether the character was  drunk  or gay. Michael Eisner  even proclaimed while watching the events unfold, â€Å"He's ruining the film! †Ã‚  Depp actually fought back and responded, â€Å"Look, these are the choices I made. You know my work. So either trust me or give me the boot.   Some industry insiders also questioned Depp's casting, as he wasn’t known for working in a traditional studio setting and had even been called an unconventional actor. Depp's portrayal as Captain Jack Sparrow was critically acclaimed. Alan Morrison said â€Å"Gloriously over-the- top  Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ In terms of physical precision and verbal delivery, it's a master-class in comedy acting. †Ã‚  Roger Ebert  also found his performance â€Å"original in its every atom. There has never been a pirate, or for that matter a human being, like this in any other movie  Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ his behavior shows a lifetime of rehearsal. Ebert also praised Depp for moving away from the how Captain Jack was written. Depp won a  Screen Actor's Guild  award for his performance, and was also nominated for a  Golden Globe  and an  Academy Award for Best Actor, the first in his career. Film School Rejects  argued and wrote, â€Å"That because of Pirates, Depp has become as much a movie star as a  character actor. Johnny Depp returned as Jack Sparrow in  Dead Man's Chest, the first time the actor ever made a sequel. Drew McWeeny  stated, â€Å"Remember how cool  Han Solo  was in  Star Wars  the first time you saw it?And then remember how much cooler he seemed when  Empire  came out? This is that big a jump. †Ã‚  Depp received an  MTV Movie Award  and a  Teen Choice Award  for  Dead Man's Chest, and was also nominated for an  Empire Award  and another  Golden Globe. For his performance in  At World's End, Depp won an  MTV Movie Award  for Best Comedic Performance, as well as a  People's Choice Award, a  Kids' Choice Award, and another  Teen Choice Award. He has signed on to reprise the role for future sequels. Captain Jack appeals to us as moviegoers because he brings out our inner-most sense of adventure.We want him to succeed and we feel like we are right there when he takes us on an adventure. The first time we meet Captain Jack in The Curse of the Black Pearl he is sailing into Port Royal on a dinghy-like boat that is sinking to the ocean floor the during the whole scene. He eventually walks onto the dock from the crow’s nest, acting if nothing ever happened. He immediately pays off a dock worker in order to skip the mandatory ID check required to enter the city. This is what we love from a character; someone who makes the best of his situation and finds a way to get into the crowd.In the real world, we would never considering acting like Jack does. But in the movies, his adventure-seeking nature is something we crave. Despite all of the moral faults of Sparrow, the audience still finds him loveable. This is all thanks to Johnny Depp’s masterful portrayal. Depp was able to create a very human, multifaceted, believable character. What’s even weirder is that Jack is not the typical pirate that peaks our interests. He is not bulky, muscular, or very intimidating. His actions at some times are very effeminate.Although he used his brain more than brawn, the films will show us that he is very athletic on his own. Sparrow also shows us that it doesn’t matter who our friends are. Just look at his crew while he is commanding the Black Pearl. It is the most rag-tag group of pirates you will ever see. It even included a woman in the first movie, something that was very taboo for Captains to have in their crew at the time. Another bright spot on Sparrow is that he uses everything that is available to him. He may not be the best swordsman, but if there is anything that could possibly be a weapon near him, he will use it.Anything you can think of really; whiskey barrels, horses, even him fighting on a water-wheel that generates power. In Dead Man’s Chest Jack was found to be the accepted leader of a tribe of Caribbean natives. He somehow mastered their language and was living in the lap of luxury until he found out that he was going to be a human sacrifice. Things like this are what draw us to The Captain. His wild and crazy adventures may come to an end someday, but he will always be memorable to me and definitely left a mark on the movie world.

Research Proposal Electronic Health Records

Effects of Technological Experience on Adoption and Usage of Electronic Health Records Introduction The integration of electronic health records in the IT infrastructures supporting medical facilities enables improved access to and recording of patient data, enhanced ability to make more informed and more-timely decisions, and decreased errors. Despite these benefits, there are mixed results as to the use of EHR.The aim of this research is to determine if medical health professionals who lack experience with technology are slower to adopt and use electronic health records (EHR). Research has shown that the healthcare industry is plagued by rapidly increasing costs and poor quality. The United States medical care is the world’s most costly, but its outcomes are mediocre compared with other industrialized, and some non-industrialized, nations. Medical errors are a major problem resulting in upwards of 98000 deaths a year; as a result, patient safety has become a top priority.The healthcare system has been slow to take advantage of EHR and realize the benefits of computerization: that is, to improve access to records and patient data, to reduce incorrect dose errors, avoid drug interactions, and ensure the right patient is in the operating room (Noteboom 2012). Despite the obvious benefits a 2007 survey by the American Hospital Association reported that only 11% of hospitals had fully implemented EHR. Another study by Vishwanath& Scamurra reported less than 10% of physicians in different practices and settings in the US use EHR. Blumenthal (2009) cites only 1. 5% of US hospitals have comprehensive EHR systems.A similar 2009 study by the American Hospital Association shows less than 2% of hospitals use comprehensive EHR and about 8% use a basic EHR in at least one care unit. These findings indicate the adoption of HER continues to be low in US hospitals (Manos, 2009). Understanding the reason for the lack of technological integration is pivotal to securing q uality and affordable medical care. Education expert Mark Prensky (2001) defined two terms, digital natives and digital immigrants, which he used to describe those who have an innate ability for technology from an early age (native) and those who are slower to learn and adopt it (immigrant).This disparity is suggested to play a key role in the ability and desire of professional to use technological solutions in their day-to-day activities. Our intent is to expand this possibility to medical health professionals’ use of electronic health records. Our research will attempt to determine if being native to technology has any impact on a practitioner’s desire to incorporate information technology in to their work routine. We will also see if natives have perform better in health information settings as has been shown in other areas.Previous Research A 2008 study by DesRoches et al. attempted to discern barriers to the adoption of electronic health records. The authors condu cted a survey of physicians registered in the masterfile of the American Medical Association, excluding Doctors of Osteopathy. The authors listed 4 basic reasons the respondents could choose from; financial barriers, organizational barriers, legal barriers, and barriers from the state of the technology. Respondents could further clarify their responses base on subgroups.Financial barriers could include initial capital to implement the systems or uncertainty about the return on investment. Organizational barriers were sub-divided in to physician didn’t want to, the physicians did not have the capacity to, or they feared there would be a loss of productivity during implementation. Legal barriers included fears of breaches of confidentiality, hackers, and legal liability. State of technology included failure to locate an EHR that could meet their needs or that the system would become obsolete to quickly.Their results show that 66% of physicians without EHR’s cited capital costs as a reason. The also responded with not finding a system to meet their needs, 54%, uncertainty about their return on the investment, 50%, and concern that a system would become obsolete, 44%. Physicians working in locations with EHRs tended to highlight the same barriers, though less frequently. The authors concluded that financial limitations are the greatest barrier to the adoption of electronic health records. They do admit that their study, like all surveys, could be subject to response bias.Burt (2005) also surveyed physicians, this time from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, a yearly survey conducted by the US census bureau. The authors were attempting to find correlations between EHR implementation and other statistics, such as age, practice size, and ownership (physician, physician group, or HMO). They used regression modeling and bivariate analysis of three years of survey data. They found that practices owned by HMOs were three times more likely to adopt EHR as single physician or group owned practices.Also, large physician group owned practices (20 or more) had an increased usage of EHR over small group and single physician owned. The authors reported that there were no variations due to practice size in the different ownership groups. Physicians’ age did not have any effect on EHR usage. The authors concluded that the ability of larger practices to spread the sizable investment required to purchase and implement the technology over more physicians and services was the largest factor in implementation EHR. Laerum (2001) was the first to look at how individual Physicians interact and use EHRs on an everyday basis.The conducted surveys and telephone interviews with physician in 32 units of 19 hospitals in Norway, because a much higher percentage of Norwegian hospitals use EHR, about 73%. The authors selected 23 possible common tasks a physician that could be assisted by or completed by an EHR. The also collected computer lite racy data, respondent age and sex and overall satisfaction with the system. The authors found that very few of the possible tasks were being utilized in the EHR. The found that on average physicians were using EHR for 2 to 7 of the possible 23 tasks.Most of the tasks used related to reading patient data. The also found that the computer literacy rate was high (72. 2/100) and there was no correlation with respondents age or sex. They gave the users satisfaction as a generally positive rating. Though demonstrating that physicians use EHR less than they could they gave no explanation as to why. Simon (2009) followed the same path as Laerum mentioned above, surveying physicians usage of EHR in practices that have systems deployed. The authors identified ten main functions available in EHR systems deployed in hospitals in Massachusetts.They attempted to determine if these ten functions were actually being utilized or if the physicians were still using paper. The authors deployed mail bas ed surveys, in 2005 and 2007, to physician in Massachusetts. The surveys asked the practitioners if they had an EHR deployed in their hospital, if and how they used the EHR for the ten predetermined tasks, and simple demographic information. The authors found that while EHR deployment grew by 12% (from 23% to 35% of hospitals), the amount of usage self reported didn't change.EHRs were still mostly being used for reading patient data, but there was a small increase in the use of electronic prescribing, with 19. 9% of physicians with this function available in 2005 using it most of the time, compared to 42. 6% in 2007. Linder (2006) expanded on this by asking why physicians aren't using EHRs. The authors also conducted a survey of Partners Healthcare; which supports an internally developed, web based, fully functioning EHR called Longitudinal Medical Record. They also expanded their base to include nurses, nurse practitioners, and physicians.The survey contained basic demographic info rmation, self-reporting skill level with the EHR, how often they used the EHR, and what they felt were barriers to their use of the system. Since this survey was contained to a system that had already implemented the EHR, the authors had removed the typical barriers of capital as reported above, but they still found that 25% never or rarely used the system, and less than 15% used the system exclusively every time, i. e. never took paper notes or wrote paper prescriptions.They found no correlation of EHR usage to age or gender, but did find that nurses were slightly less likely to use the system. The most uprising data was why practitioners said they didn’t use the EHR with 62% of respondents saying they didn't want to suffer a loss of eye contact with the patients and 31% of respondents saying that they thought it was rude to use a computer in front of a patient. Other notable reasons were falling behind schedule at 52%, computer being to slow (49%), typing skill (32%), and p referring to write â€Å"long prose notes† (28%).This was the first study to identify social barriers to the adoption of EHR in professional settings. Since the majority of the research had been unable to identify simple solutions a series of workshops consisting of industry leaders were formed to study the problem. Kaplan (2009) reports that participants convened and discussed current issues and challenges with widespread adoption of EHR. The workshops conclude that while there are still some technical issues with Information technology in the health sector the main focus needs to shift to revealing sociological and cultural problems.Noteboom (2012) took a different method to determine barriers to EHR adoption; eschewing all previous research in to problems with the usage of EHRs. The authors decide to use an approach more commonly seen in social sciences called open coding, a type of grounded theory. This method is almost the complete revers of traditional research in that it starts with data collection. From this data, key points of text, in this case transcripts from case studies, are marked with a series of codes.These codes are anchors that allow key points of data to be gathered. The researcher can then use these key points to construct a theory or hypothesis. Noteboom started with simple interviews with physician, attempting to elicit â€Å"perceptions, meanings, feelings, reasons, and comments† about their interaction with EHRs. The interviewed physician at the Research Medical Center, Kansas City, and labeled the transcripts of these interviews. From these interviews the authors discovered that users of EHR fall victim to positive and negative work cycles.Positive cycles are ways in which the system helps the physician, i. e. quicker reading of patient data or mining historical data. Negative cycles are tasks that take longer like data entry, which was done by nurses prior to EHR implementation, or lack of specific functions for special ists, calculate rad dosage for radiation therapy. Design Our research methodology will consist of a case study of medical health professional, preferably physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and nurse practitioners, currently employed in an institute running EHRs.The primary data will be gathered through interviews to elicit perceptions on ability to adapt to and use new technology, feelings on the implementation of the technology, comments about the systems, and history of their technology use (to determine natives and immigrants). Secondary data will be collected by having competent users observing participants interaction with the system and evaluating their efficacy. Once the data has been collected it will be analyzed to determine if there is any correlation between digital natives and digital immigrants as it pertains to their use of EHR.Special attention will be paid to how often the system is used compared to the theoretical maximum and how efficient the practitioner is compared to how efficient they perceive they are. Requirements to conduct this study are small. All that is required are willing hospitals that have EHR systems installed, hopefully with a diverse staff spanning many age groups and experience levels. We would also require around 5 interviewers who are well versed in assessing software efficacy to conduct the interviews and gauge practitioners’ abilities on the EHR system.Statistical data will be calculated on IBM SPSS or similar. ? References Bates, D. W. , Ebell, M. , Gotlieb, E. , Zapp, J. , & Mullins, H. C. (2003). A proposal for electronic medical records in US primary care. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 10(1), 1-10. Blumenthal, D. (2009). Stimulating the adoption of health information technology. New England Journal of Medicine, 360(15), 1477-1479. Burt, C. W. , & Sisk, J. E. (2005). Which physicians and practices are using electronic medical records?. Health Affairs, 24(5), 1334-1343. DesRoch es, C.M. , Campbell, E. G. , Rao, S. R. , Donelan, K. , Ferris, T. G. , Jha, A. , †¦ & Blumenthal, D. (2008). Electronic health records in ambulatory care—a national survey of physicians. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(1), 50-60 Kohn, L. T. , Corrigan, J. , & Donaldson, M. S. (2000). To err is human: building a safer health system (Vol. 6). Joseph Henry Press. Kaplan, B. , & Harris-Salamone, K. D. (2009). Health IT success and failure: recommendations from literature and an AMIA workshop. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 16(3), 291-299.L? rum, H. , Ellingsen, G. , & Faxvaag, A. (2001). Doctors' use of electronic medical records systems in hospitals: cross sectional survey. Bmj, 323(7325), 1344-1348. Linder, J. A. , Schnipper, J. L. , Tsurikova, R. , Melnikas, A. J. , Volk, L. A. , & Middleton, B. (2006). Barriers to electronic health record use during patient visits. In AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings (Vol. 2006, p. 499). American Medical Informatics Association Manos, D. (2009). New study shows few hospitals have comprehensive EHR. Healthcare IT News. McDonald, C. J. (1997).The barriers to electronic medical record systems and how to overcome them. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 4(3), 213-221. Noteboom, C. , Bastola, D. , & Qureshi, S. (2012, January). Cycles of Electronic Health Records Adaptation by Physicians: How Do the Positive and Negative Experiences with the EHR System Affect Physicians' EHR Adaptation Process?. In System Science (HICSS), 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 2685-2695). IEEE Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants Part 2: Do they really think differently?.On the horizon, 9(6), 1-6 Simon, S. R. , Soran, C. S. , Kaushal, R. , Jenter, C. A. , Volk, L. A. , Burdick, E. , †¦ & Bates, D. W. (2009). Physicians' use of key functions in electronic health records from 2005 to 2007: a statewide survey. Journal of the American Medical Informati cs Association, 16(4), 465-470. Vishwanath, A. , & Scamurra, S. D. (2007). Barriers to the adoption of electronic health records: using concept mapping to develop a comprehensive empirical model. Health Informatics Journal, 13(2), 119-134.

How to Make Blogging Work as an Author

How to Make Blogging Work as an Author How To Make Blogging Work As An Author - An interview with Anne R. Allen Here’s another thing that we, startups, have in common with indie authors: we often blog. Whether it’s as a way to establish ourselves (in time) as thought leaders in our industry, to drive traffic to a main website, or to keep customers engaged with us, we are big fans of what we use to call â€Å"content marketing†.This strategy is all the more attractive to authors that they are used to producing content for a living. However, â€Å"blogging† is not â€Å"writing†. It’s writing, engaging, promoting, socialising, etc. It is time-consuming and not necessarily something all authors are good at. I believe there are actually two schools of thought out there, one urging authors to have a blog, the other one stating that time spent on writing for the blog is time you could have spent writing â€Å"sell-able† material: books.So today we interview one of the most successful author bloggers out there: Anne R. Allen. And she offers some good p oints on how useful blogging can be, if done right!Reedsy: Hi Anne, thanks for granting us this interview. It is fair to say that you have, together with Ruth Harris, one of the best-performing author blogs out there. And you’ve written several posts on blogging, but we’d love to dive deeper into that. The â€Å"B† word is sometimes scary to authors: do you think blogging is a requirement for indie authors today? Or just a very useful option?Anne: Thanks. I do post extensively on blogging. I’m a big fan of â€Å"slow blogging†Ã¢â‚¬â€œthat is blogging once a week or less. I feel a working fiction writer doesn’t need to blog as often as somebody who is blogging to monetize, and most of the rules for blogging don’t apply to novelists.But fiction writers can definitely benefit from maintaining a blog.I’ve also written a book that discusses blogging in depth, along with the other skills I think benefit a 21st Century writer. The boo k is HOW TO BE A WRITER IN THE E-AGE, co-written with NYT bestseller, Catherine Ryan Hyde.I’m working on a short handbook specifically for new authors who want to learn to blog. It will launch with Kotu Beach Press later this year.In answer to your question: no, not every author should (or can) blog. Some authors aren’t cut out for writing little nonfiction essays every week. If you hate it, that will show, so don’t do it if it’s not fun for you.On the other hand, blogging is probably the most useful form of social media for the new author. For one thing, it’s the only kind of social media where you have most of the control. It gets you into search engines, helps you relate one-to-one with potential readers, and connects you with other authors and publishing professionals.Virtually all the people I work with in this industry I met through my blog. That includes two of my publishers, my first agent, my blog partner, and the wonderful fellow authors I work with for boxed sets and joint promotions.  Reedsy: I feel there is as big a proliferation of content in blogging as there is in books†¦ And the â€Å"big blogs† are the ones most trusted by the readers, so is it still possible nowadays for a starting blogger to get â€Å"big†, and how might they achieve that?Anne: Wonderful new blogs are getting my attention all the time. They don’t need to be â€Å"big† like ours to be useful to an author for networking and interacting with fans. All a blog needs to do is provide an author with a kind of â€Å"home† online where people can stop by and get to know you.Reedsy: What is the most common mistake you see authors making in their blogging activities?Anne: Oh, you probably shouldn’t get me started†¦let’s give my top 6:Not visiting other blogs. Social media is social, people, get out and meet the neighbors!Dark background, light font. Tough on the eyes and looks like an old M ySpace page. If you’re a writer, your text is all-important. Make it readable!Posting erratically. Don’t try to post every day. Choose a day of the week or month to post, and then do it regularly.Starting a bunch of blogs. Unless you write in wildly different genres, say Christian YA and Erotica, you don’t need more than one blog. You won’t be able to keep them up and readers will be confused and won’t be able to find you.Treating it like a personal journal. A blog is more like a magazine column. Be professional. Nobody cares what you had for lunch.Not putting your name on your blog! I can’t believe how many writers give their blog a cutesy title and don’t let us have a clue who the heck they are and how to contact them. You’re trying to establish a brand here, not join an anonymous hackers club.Reedsy: Is it useful to mix content forms and media (text, image, audio, video) or better to stick to one?Anne: It depends on you and your audience. Ruth and I are strictly old school and our audience is mostly mature adults. They prefer their information gimmick-free. No videos and very few images. Those things take a lot longer to load and we want people to be able to read our blog quickly and interact in the comments. But every blog is different. Lots of great blogs use video, podcasts, and tons of images.Reedsy: You mention in one of your posts that you believe the 500 word limit many set for their posts is archaic now. What would your recommendation be? Is it useful to mix lengths or should the reader always be able to know what to expect?Anne: I’ve seen studies that say today’s ideal blogpost is about 1200-1500 words. Our readers would be very disappointed to see a 500 word post. They expect in-depth work from us. But if you blog more often than once a week, shorter is fine.Reedsy: What should the #1 motivation be for an author to start a blog: the desire to monetise it eventually (through ads or referral programs), the intention of generating traffic to increase book sales, or just for fun?Anne: First, if you’re a new author, I don’t think monetizing a blog is a good idea. The income from affiliates and other advertising sources is going to be pennies a month. Ads annoy your readers and make you look needy.Your blog should aim to raise your online profile and be the â€Å"hub† of your online presence. Blogs aren’t that great for direct sales. What they do is help establish your platform. They make you Googleable. Having fun is a bonus.Reedsy: The #1 topic out there on authors’ blogs is writing and publishing advice. Is this still a good thing to go for or should authors start thinking about blogging on other subjects (maybe topics that are more related to their readership)?Anne: There are a lot of â€Å"how to fight writer’s block† and â€Å"prop up your book’s sagging middle† blogposts out there, so a blog t hat concentrates on writing tips is going to have a lot of competition.What you blog about can change and grow with your career. When you’re starting out, you want to network with other authors, so writing-related stuff can be useful, but later, when you want to reach fans, you’ll want to change focus. Write more about your settings and subject matter and let people know about you as a person.Reedsy: What is the best way to promote a blog? Is it fair to say guest-posting is the most effective method?Anne: Guest posting is probably the best way to get your name out there, whether you have your own blog or not. Landing a spot on a high profile blog can jumpstart a career in a major way. My blog went from about 10 hits a week to 1000 when I won a guest spot on Nathan Bransford’s blog in 2010.But it doesn’t have to be a high profile blog (blogs like ours are booked a year in advance and we only take people who already have big followings†¦although we may run a contest for a guest spot sometime this summer.)But guesting on a smaller blog run by an author who writes in the same genre can actually sell more books than getting on a blog that gets 100K hits a month like ours. One of my best sales days in my early career came when I visited a chick lit blog with only a couple of dozen followers. Nearly every reader bought my book.And the #1 way to get invited to guest blog is also the best way to get traffic to your blog: comment on other blogs. Get to know the blogging community. One comment on a blog like Nathan’s or The Passive Voice (or ours) will put your name in front of thousands of readers.Also, don’t underestimate the power of other social media. My blog took off mostly from Tweets from readers.Google Plus is also essential for bloggers, IMO, because a post that’s reposted on Google Plus will immediately get a high SERP rank.   If somebody Googles â€Å"How to Blog† I might see one of my articles on the first page of the search results. But it won’t be a link to the actual blog. It will be a link to my Google Plus page where the blog has been automatically reposted. People who click through will see my entire Google Plus profile as well as the blogpost link. Very nice for getting your name out there.Facebook is becoming less and less useful for authors (or anybody else), but we still do get about 10% of our traffic from FB shares.Reedsy: Thanks for your time, Anne!  Anne R. Allen is an award-winning blogger and the author seven comic novels, including the bestselling Camilla Randall Mysteries. She has recently published a book of short stories and verses: WHY GRANDMA BOUGHT THAT CAR and she’s the co-author, with NYT bestseller Catherine Ryan Hyde, of HOW TO BE A WRITER IN THE E-AGE: A SELF-HELP GUIDEYou can find her and Reedsy on Twitter: @annerallen and @reedsyhq​Credit for the header photograph goes to  Christine Ahern  Do you have a blog too? How often do you post and what’s your experience it in terms of dos and don'ts? Make sure to leave us your opinion, or any question you’d like to ask Anne, in the comments below!

School Leadership

School Leadership Introduction In today’s era of heightened expectations, school leaders are in the hot seat to ensure effective and excellent educational outcomes. The multi-levelled pedagogic school leaders highly determine the mode of teaching students in schools and the effective application of the learning process.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on School Leadership specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Not only are they curriculum leaders but they are also educational futurists, disciplinarians, instructors, assessors, analysts, field experts and society builders (Davies 2005). They are involved in the core running of the school and act as a go-between in case of any arising conflicts between the parents, students, teachers, education participants such as unions and the society itself. This requires them to not only be sensitive when meeting student’s demands and needs but to also be critical thinkers so as to deliver val id judgments based on logic. School leadership is currently a complex concept with most leaders failing to balance their roles. It is evident that they are heavily inclined towards school management and accountability hence disregarding the effective mode of impacting knowledge to students to ensure quality teaching and learning. The outcome greatly reflects the quality of the school leaders’ pedagogy and their ability to give credible teaching instructions to improve learning in schools. Teachers need to have adequate knowledge of how to teach students and be able to implement and design the school curriculum. The following paper will therefore discuss the current change in pedagogical and instructional roles that seem to create imbalance in their competing roles and how the same can be reclaimed. School Leadership Previous studies have attempted to define the concepts, models and practises that characterise the effect of leadership in educational outcomes. Several contempor ary leadership theories have come up as a result. According to Davies and Ellison (2001), the distributional and transformational leadership theories are examples of such theories.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More These two theories have been discussed by many scholars in an attempt to draw an understanding on the nature of school leadership and how it affects learning and teaching in schools. They also create a link between the leaders and the teachers themselves with an attempt of establishing the student outcomes that is derived from this relationship. Though the study on effective leadership based on this theories have not been concluded, it is evident that school leaders have a big role to play. Student performance is therefore attributed to the influence impacted through effective leadership. Successful school leaders give support and knowledgeable instructions to the t eachers, a practise that develops their inner intellectual powers. In addition, they also implement an effective organisation model that helps them strike a balance in their competitive roles. The studies on educational leadership draws a clear conclusion that school leaders requires to be actively involved in the institution’s learning and instructional programs. Principals need to balance the instructional and pedagogical roles together with their managerial roles to ensure exemplary student performance. The main goal in any learning institution is assuring parents and the society in general that their children are receiving quality education. Though managerial and compliance accountability roles play a big role in running a school, student performance should be made the core business, a concept that is ignored by many school leaders. Leadership Crisis In order to discuss how school leaders can become instructional and pedagogical leaders rather than just mere managers, it is important to look at the challenges facing school leadership. There has been increasing demands for effective schools and the achievement by students is entirely based on the key roles played by school leaders. Leadership challenges have played a big role in the transformation of quality teaching and learning (Duke 2010). The school leaders need to address these challenges as a step of regaining the lost glory. One of the main challenge relate to the leadership styles adopted by the leaders.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on School Leadership specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Most school leaders lead through manipulation that tends to intimidate teachers. A research conducted indicates that 80% of school management is characterised by dictatorial leadership (Duke 2010). This can be due to various reasons such as nepotism or favouritism by the leader. Dictatorial leadership can also be applied in instances where the leader is involved in unscrupulous dealings and is afraid of being exposed by a certain teacher. In such cases, the dictatorial management style instils fear in such teachers who steer away from the leader’s affairs. This challenge begets teachers who in turn fail to perform in their role of impacting knowledge to students. The other challenge is the limited capacity by school leaders to qualify as effective leaders. There has been an increase in unqualified selection of leaders due to the lenient selection process. The mode of screening, selection and admitting the leaders have been ill-defined and lacking in its application. As a result, most school leaders are easily admitted based on their academic background only and not their knowledge experiences or skill disposition required to making an effective leader. In addition, there are inadequate training programs for principals. The training is important to upgrade their competence and qualification to effectively run a scho ol. Lack of dialogue between leaders and other participants in decision making is also a leadership crisis that has led to a decline in students’ performances. Such leaders fail to take criticism from teachers, students or even the society itself positively. This leads to such leaders applying the direct approach instead of a facilitative approach while making their decisions. This approach is bureaucratic in nature and tends to leave out important factors that can result to a disastrous decision. The other challenge worth noting is the lack of ownership in the mission and vision statements of the school. These statements play a big role in achieving the goals set by the school’s administration. In most schools, leaders have failed to expose the vision and mission to both teachers and students as an inspiration for them to work towards achieving the set goals and objectives. Most school teachers are up in hands to retain their position thus compromising the performance of students.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Instead of engaging both students and the teachers, they are busy pleasing the school board in a bid to secure their managerial positions and disregarding problems faced by teachers to facilitate effective learning (Grace 1995). The quality of education has declined over the past few years. It is important to note that most of these challenges were not faced twenty ago hence they can be resolved. The challenges not only lead to the leader’s disorientation but also affect the teachers and the students as well. Instructional And Pedagogical Leadership Versus Administrative Leadership An oration by William Walker during a conference held by educational leaders in Australia gives a clear analysis of who qualifies as a pedagogical leader. Delivered by Viviane Robinson, the article seems to focus on educational leadership and their ability to give instructions rather than just being mere managers (Robinson 2007). The roles in this kind of leadership are differentiated from that of a school administrator in various ways. One distinctive role is the mode of discharging their administrative duties. While the administrators apply a rather strict approach, a pedagogical leader has clear set goals that involve all the participants. The latter is more involved in the implementation of the curriculum, monitoring process and evaluation of teachers and allocation of resources to make the program successful. They also encourage team work and transparency as opposed to their counterparts through delegation of powers to their juniors, a tactic that enhances learning growth. Recent definition of an instructional and pedagogical leader by Pont, Nusche and Moorman (2008) has shifted to include teaching and learning. Some of the scholars have further defined this kind of leadership as ‘learning leadership’. The community in such a learning environment uphold team work as the guiding principal. This entails constant meetings by staff members to discuss, reflect an d modify the learning process together as a team. To further avoid any future conflict that may arise, the members are armed with a problem-solving model to come up with a solution. The community creates a learning culture that leads to student’s success. Administrative leaders on the other hand are more attentive to the general running of the school as regards its finances, school projects and other factors affecting the general management of the school. They isolate themselves from the learning and teaching process leaving it entirely to the juniors to device their own curriculum. This leads to teacher’s laxity which in turn leads to a decline in students’ performances (Anderson and Cawsey 2008). Striking a Balance between the Administrative Role and the Pedagogical/Instructional Role For school leaders to be classified as effective leaders, they need to get deeply involved in the learning and teaching process while at the same time managing their administrati ve role. While this seems to be a challenging task, it is possible through application of various workable solutions. While teaching and learning has been termed as the core business in any learning institution, the school’s management needs to be kept running to ensure success in the said core business. Failure to effectively manage one can render the other one futile. Several scholars have proposed some workable models that can help strike a balance between these competing roles hence reclaiming the lost pedagogical and instructional roles of school leaders. This balancing model can be analysed through five strategic dimensions that play a big role in impacting quality knowledge to students. One of the dimensions is through promotion and active participation in teacher learning development. Crowther, Ferguson and Hann (2008) argue that a school leader needs to be actively involved in all activities pertaining to professional and developmental learning. This has proved to ha ve great impact on the student’s performance outcome. The school leader can be involved through formal or informal contexts. Formal context entails organising and participating in staff meetings and formal professional sessions. The informal context requires the school leader to not only initiate team building sessions that bring together all the members of the staff but to actively participate in them too. Team building session helps the members to identify problems that hinder the learning process and to come up with solutions to these problems through rigorous discussions. Scholars have suggested that such leaders who take this initiative begin to develop a focus in the learning and teaching process. They further get to learn their staff and how they operate. This helps the leaders to know the problems that the staff members are likely to face hence helping them with adequate support ranging from teaching resources to coming up with a valid timetable. Lastly, they learn to appreciate all the stages and time-line involved in the transformation process. The dimension not only involves itself in the learning process but also the administration role. The leader learns to involve the members of the staff in matters that affect the general running of the school hence helping to strike a balance between the two competing roles. The other dimension is through planning, evaluation and implementation of teaching curriculum. The school leaders need to be directly involved in the teaching process through regular attendance in classrooms. Recent study has indicated that giving a feedback to the teachers regarding their teaching tactics in class has played a key role in positive student outcomes (Mullen 2007). Such leaders play a vital role in coordinating an effective school curriculum to be used in all the levels. They also work together with staff members to plan, evaluate and implement their teaching curriculum. The curriculum also ensures a monitoring policy that closely follows the progress of student’s performance and evaluating the results in order to enhance future teaching programs. An effective teaching curriculum not only ensures exemplary performance but also help to create a good image of the school’s administration to the society. The image is an indication that the school head has the managerial abilities to run the school’s administration. Another dimension requires the leaders to come up with goals and expectations. This is by establishing an effective and workable vision and mission statement and to own it. The mission and vision statement encompass the goals and expectations set by both teachers and the students. It is therefore important to actively involve them in setting up these learning goals. Though it can be argued that this dimension plays a very minimal role in student outcome, it has significant learning impact to the students and staff by allowing them develop a specific focus. The school l eader is able to give priority to student achievement by ensuring that the goals are met and that the teaching curriculum correlates with the set school objectives. On the other hand, the goals and objectives also oversee the general running of the school by acting as the guiding principles. Strategic resourcing is also another dimension that the leader should actively be involved in. Strategic decisions concerning allocation of resources to aid in the learning and teaching process have an indirect impact in the student performance outcomes. The resources cover the school staffing and provision of teaching materials that facilitate the learning process. What is important is the ability of the leader to secure adequate resources that relates to the pedagogical set goals and objectives. The school leader on the other hand gains an additional skill to allocate resources required in the managerial role as well. The last dimension is to make certain that an orderly and supportive learnin g environment is maintained. School leaders should ensure a safe and caring haven for both its teaching staff and the students. The intervention mode by school heads to ensure such an environment helps to create a balance between the competing roles. Some of the interventions include setting up a standard discipline code, ensuring minimal conflicts that tends to disrupt the learning process and to protect the teaching staff from undue pressure from outside participants such as the parents or the school board. Implications Of The Dimensions The final question that requires to be answered is whether the dimensions play any key role in striking a balance in a leader’s competitive roles so as to ensure quality learning and teaching process. The dimensions seem to create a link between the leaders and other participants involved in the learning process. This creates an implication of team work that helps in solving problems. It further helps to strike a balance by ensuring key eva luation in student performances that effectively embeds positive experiences. The dimensions also include all the key areas in the school environment and serves as a focal point of leadership that ensures flexibility in affecting decisions made by the participants. Conclusion In order for school leaders to strike a balance between being both administrative and instructional/pedagogical leaders, they need first to focus on effective mode of leadership rather than the bureaucratic approach. The school head should then apply the dimensions in order to effectively get involved in the teaching and learning process on one hand and the managerial role on the other. This makes the heads partake the student’s performance as their core business hence meeting the ultimate requirement as an instructional or pedagogical leader. Reference List Anderson, M and Cawsey, C (2008) Learning for leadership: building a school of  Professional practice. Camberwell, Australian Council for Educatio nal Research Press. Crowther, F., Ferguson, M and Hann, L (2008) Developing Teacher Leaders: How  Teacher Leadership Enhances School Success. London, SAGE Publications. Davies, B (2005) The essentials of school leadership. London, Paul Chapman Publishing and Corwin Press. Davies, B and Ellison, L (2001) School leadership for the 21st century. A competency  and knowledge approach. New York, Routledge. Duke, D.L (2010) The Challenges of School District Leadership. New York, Routledge. Grace, R.G (1995) School leadership: beyond education management: an essay in  policy scholarship. Bristol, The Falmer Press. Mullen, C (2007) Curriculum leadership development: a guide for aspiring school  leaders. Sydney, John Wiley Sons Australia Ltd. Pont, B., Nusche, D and Moorman, H (2008) Improving school leadership: Policy and  practice. New Zealand, OECD Publishing. Robinson, V (2007) William Walker Oration: School Leadership and Student Outcomes  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Identifying What Works and Why. [Online] Available at: www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2515/13723.

Tent Poles and Tentpoles

Tent Poles and Tentpoles Tent Poles and Tentpoles Tent Poles and Tentpoles By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders about a Hollywood term new to him: Have been seeing Hollywood recently using the expression tent poles, but its not clear what theyre trying to express. Can you enlighten us? Literally, a â€Å"tent pole† is a long stick that holds up a tent roof. A good rule of thumb is to fold the tent about the same length as the  tent poles before you roll it up.   A palatka is a hut with a  tent-pole  all the way to the top. I have seen tentpole used figuratively to refer to a tall person, the way Hermia uses maypole in her harangue against tall Helena: How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak. How low am I? I am not yet so low But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. The OED offers an example of tent-pole used as an epithet in the list of compound words in the entry for tent: His ugly, unmarriageable tent-pole of a daughter. Tentpole in the context of entertainment was new to me. The OED does not include a definition for this use, but Merriam-Webster does: tentpole noun: a big-budget movie whose earnings are expected to compensate the studio for its less profitable movies. In some contexts, a tentpole movie is one that will make money with tie-in merchandise. In television programming, a new, untried show is scheduled to follow a popular show- the tentpole- in an effort to keep viewers watching. Tentpole movies are usually equated with high-budget blockbusters: Universal Pictures has done away with the tentpole blockbusterthis year, at least Paul Greengrass has defended Hollywoods high stakes tent pole movie strategy, saying that big budget blockbusters are essential for the movie business. For the last five years or so, the dominant studio strategy for combatting lower attendance and movies’ declining entertainment market share has been a focus on bigger movies – the â€Å"tentpoles†, in industry parlance, â€Å"four-quadrant† movies that appeal to every stereotypical member of the stereotypical family, targeting the largest possible audience. An article in Forbes, however, speculates that less expensive films may be able to function as tentpoles: We may have reached the point where cheap comedies are the new tentpoles.- â€Å"Neighbors May Represent The Future Of Tentpoles,† Forbes In Hollywood jargon, a tentpole is a movie of any kind that can be expected to garner earnings beyond initial ticket sales, usually in the form of sequels and the licensing of related merchandise. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Idioms About TalkingDisappointed + PrepositionConfusion of Subjective and Objective Pronouns

African studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

African studies - Essay Example Mammo elucidates the fact that the rate of development in Africa cannot be considered to have been substandard as compared to other parts of the world. African development was significantly affected after its colonization by European countries. It is worth noting that colonization was characterized by slave trade between the seventeenth century and twentieth century. Instead of Africans developing there continent, there were sold as slaves in other parts of the world particularly in America to work in the farms. Therefore, Africa remained underdeveloped as other parts of the world were developing at a very rapid rate (Mammo 24). The partition of Africa into colonies led to disproportionate allocation of resources since some of the colonies had higher quantities of mineral resources than others. Subsequently, this has led to some African countries enriching themselves from these resources leaving others poor (Europa Publications 33). European colonization also led to the discrimination of Africans. According to Europa Publications, racial discrimination against Africans was rampant in the 19th century whereby the colonizers considered Africans as lesser humans (33). Africans were not allowed to mix with Europeans and were therefore forced in selected villages. It is worth noting that the effects of discrimination against Africans is still felt today especially in America. The partitioning of Africa and the fact that Africans were forced to live in segregated villages is one of the contributing factors of ethnic conflicts that are prevalent in African countries. When colonization came to an end in the twentieth century, most of the African countries were left subdivided into ethnic regions. Therefore, there has always been a struggle for power between these ethnic communities in Africa. In the fight for independence in many parts of Africa, individuals united

Reserch paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reserch paper - Essay Example Obesity rates have doubled in the past two decades. There are several health risks that are associated with obesity such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The prevalence of obesity in the US and in other countries can be attributed to the unhealthy eating habits of the generation today. People today are faced with two options, eat healthy or eat junk. The choice to eat healthy or junk starts from having to know what exactly is healthy food and what is junk food. Health and nutrition experts say that junk food is bad and healthy food is good. For non-nutritionists, junk foods are chips, processed foods, hamburgers, pizzas, French fries, doughnuts, sodas and candies (Unp.me). These are food that are very high in calories and loaded with unwanted fat (Unp.me). On the other hand, healthy foods are fruits, vegetables, and lean meat (Unp.me). So, how does one know the difference? The major difference between junk food and healthy food is the nutrient content. Junk food is referred to as â€Å"foods of minimal nutritional value† because they go through several processes, with high sugar, sodium and artificical additives content. Because of too much processing, which includes excessive heat and exposure to air, the food nutrients are lost. There are approximately 4000 artificial additives that may be found in different types of junk food. Additives may be artificial sweeteners and colors, preservatives and chemically-altered fake fats. Some of these additives have side effects while others are not yet fully-tested. Unlike healthy food, junk food does not help build one’s stamina. Junk food may give one the feeling of instant energy but in reality, an overdose of junk food results in a deficiency in energy (Unp.me). Eating junk food is disadvantageous to an individual because it leads to poor concentration unlike healthy food, which sharpens one’s concentration skills (Unp.me). A high cholesterol level is an end result of consum ing too much junk food. On the contrary, healthy food helps maintain the blood cholesterol level (Unp.me). Compared to healthy food, junk food is usually cheaper than healthy food. The reason behind this is because junk food is mass-produced, has a lot of preservatives & it can be stored for a longer period of time. Furthermore, the ingredients used in junk food may come from low quality food sources which are cheap. Healthy food is nutrient-rich and helps in preventing diseases. It should have a high fiber content, minimal added sugars, zero or low in saturated and trans fat and low in sodium. Pasta or bread, to be considered healthy should be composed of whole grain instead of refined wheat flour. When it comes to sugar in food, sugar in fresh fruit is always a better alternative than refined sugar or artificial sweeteners. Healthy food should be low in sodium; thus, eating canned or packaged food such as deli meats, soups, hotdogs and chips is equivalent to eating junk food. With regards to fat, healthy food should contain monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats that one can get from nuts, seeds and some fruits such as avocado. One category of healthy foods is organic food. Organic fruits and vegetables are those that did not use synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, and did not originate from other genetically modified seeds. These types of food are considered healthy food because less chemicals go into it; thus, less chemicals will also be absorbed by the body. Organic foods are therefore regarded as

Who do you think you are Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Who do you think you are - Essay Example Further, as far as my future life is concerned, I must enroll myself in courses that give a good value and which make me feel proud of who I am. Another aspect of my personality is that my confidence has always been at its top level. It has made me realize that nothing in life is unachievable and one needs to go out there and work his best to find out the success that is hidden. The right skills that I possess make me feel confident with every passing day and for this reason my goals become attainable. My future considerations get strengthened with the confidence that has been fed in my personality and which allows me to give my best no matter how tough or trying the circumstances turn out to be. I see a number of opportunities coming up for me in the future which is something that is a plus at any time. Adding to the aspects that are significant within my personality make-up, I am having good physical health which is a definite plus as well. It gives me a solid chance to perform at my very best within my work domains and live my life to the maximum. Since everyone wishes to live a long life, my desire is the same nonetheless. I believe if I remain fit and healthy, nothing can take away the happiness that I have. I am a friendly individual who believes in social behavior to the maximum possible levels. I am good at making friends with people and get along with them quickly. This is one of my biggest strengths and I enjoy it a lot. My personal life is made richer with so many friends around me. It helps me to find out the real side of me that I have. I call them, invite them to go and hang out with me and thus have fun with them all this while. It is a face that some or the other friend is always around me and hence I enjoy their company a lot. What is important here is that I am always available to them whenever they need me. In the end, my profession is that of a registered nurse. As I have

Fredricksons various models in the story of Stephen Cruz by Studs Essay

Fredricksons various models in the story of Stephen Cruz by Studs Terkel - Essay Example For Stephen Cruz, who was taught and brought up by his father to work hard in whatever he does and avoid taking things that he does not deserve, is seen in the story being told to fall in the line and learn the way of doing business as the dominant and powerful group does. The Civil Acts of 1964 is used in this story to signify the way policies and legislations are used to assimilate minority groups. Fredrickson’s one way assimilation methods is apparently used in this story as the minorities are being accepted and employed to and by the dominant group, but they still play a subordinate role and are not allowed to fully enjoy the freedoms nor fulfill their American dream (Fredrickson, 335). As Stephen Cruz rises up through the corporate ladder slowly with his sheer hard work, he continues to discover that maybe the American dream he is working on is not meant for him. This is because he discovers that the dream and the relations between the minority-weak and dominant-powerful, are to the advantage of the later. This relation is described by Fredrickson as group separatism. Although the method of doing so might not be as direct as it may be perceived to be, through taking advantages of various legislations and policies to their (dominant group), can be seen as a way to separate the dominant and the minority. The dominant and powerful in America continue to get stronger and wealthy and the expense of the minority. This separates the two groups even further and no equally is presented.

Dyslexia as a learning disorder Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Dyslexia as a learning disorder - Assignment Example Several years later, W. Pringle Morgan, a British physician, published a description of a reading-specific learning disorder in a letter to the British Medical Journal. His letter described the case of a boy named Percy who, at age 14, had not yet learned to read, yet he showed normal intelligence and was generally adept at other activities typical of children of that age. It's evident that such children need some peculiar aide. To prove it I'd like to give an example of my little nephew. Andrew is a very smart boy. At the age of five he was able to accomplish complex mathematical tasks. But he couldn't read and all our forces to teach him reading were in vain. He was absolutely happy when somebody was reading him aloud. It took him ten or five minutes to learn by heart a large poem consisting of twenty lines. So we decided that he was too young to read and at school this problem would be solved. But our suppositions have not proved to be correct. Among the children of his lass he was the best in mathematics and the worst in reading. He got bad marks everyday and that made him believe to be stupid. His teacher explained us that he wasn't to identify words and to recognize the sounds that made up words. Having looked into his copy book my aunt saw that he tended to reverse letters and sometimes whole words for example "saw" was written as "was" "b" as "d" etc. Andrew continued to lag behind his peers in reading and writing skills. He hated school because he was always told to be stupid lazy and the worst. Our previously happy boy was close to nervous breakdown. And we decided to consult a doctor. The dyslexia was diagnosed. Well let's continue Andrew's story. At the first visit to doctor Brant his mother was asked about the family's medical and developmental history. Andrew's mother said that her cousin had had the same problem. After that they were said that after the treatm ent Andrew would be doing well at school and would have all chances to make a thoroughly successful career. Andrew's mother was advised to use reading upgrade course and the result was tremendous. Only a month after starting this course my little nephew began to read himself at first syllables and after month and a fortnight he become able to read perfectly without missing or reversing letters. But this great success has come to us not only owing to this program. Andrew's relatives were given a special guide aimed to teach parents right behavior. Nowadays Andrew is a thoroughly successful young man. He's a first year student of the university; he does very well at the university and doesn't remember about his problems at the childhood. He is a real fan of reading. He seems to know everything in the would. dyslexia is a learning disorder. Its underlying cause is believed to be a brain-based condition that influences the ability to read written language. It is identified in individuals who fail to learn to read in the absence of a verbal or nonverbal intellectual impairment, sensory deficit (e.g., a visual deficit or hearing loss), pervasive developmental deficit or a frank neurological impairment. The following conditions are sometimes confused with dyslexia because they can also lead to difficulty reading: Auditory Processing Disorder is a condition that affects the ability to encode auditory information. It can lead to problems with auditory working memory and auditory sequencing. Dyspraxia is a neurological condition characterized by a marked

Fredricksons various models in the story of Stephen Cruz by Studs Essay

Fredricksons various models in the story of Stephen Cruz by Studs Terkel - Essay Example For Stephen Cruz, who was taught and brought up by his father to work hard in whatever he does and avoid taking things that he does not deserve, is seen in the story being told to fall in the line and learn the way of doing business as the dominant and powerful group does. The Civil Acts of 1964 is used in this story to signify the way policies and legislations are used to assimilate minority groups. Fredrickson’s one way assimilation methods is apparently used in this story as the minorities are being accepted and employed to and by the dominant group, but they still play a subordinate role and are not allowed to fully enjoy the freedoms nor fulfill their American dream (Fredrickson, 335). As Stephen Cruz rises up through the corporate ladder slowly with his sheer hard work, he continues to discover that maybe the American dream he is working on is not meant for him. This is because he discovers that the dream and the relations between the minority-weak and dominant-powerful, are to the advantage of the later. This relation is described by Fredrickson as group separatism. Although the method of doing so might not be as direct as it may be perceived to be, through taking advantages of various legislations and policies to their (dominant group), can be seen as a way to separate the dominant and the minority. The dominant and powerful in America continue to get stronger and wealthy and the expense of the minority. This separates the two groups even further and no equally is presented.

Summary of complexity and contradition in architecture Essay

Summary of complexity and contradition in architecture - Essay Example This is because Venturi’s main argument stated that natural rules to the entire architectural domain are able to be realized through rational thinking (Venturi & Museum of Modern Art, 2007). Venturi uses political interest and debates that arose from the enlightenment of philosophers. Optimism is the greatest concern expressed by Venturi  in this text claiming, â€Å"Everything is for the best in all possible worlds.† Therefore, despite all the hardships that Venturi  goes through, he believes in God’s proclamation and trust in him sees his dream come true at the end. The expressive nature is in a reductively simplified version of the philosopher’s whom Venturi  went to seek advice from when overwhelm about his true destiny. Even Venturi  endures disappointment of his previous feelings about successfully overcoming the stress he was enduring. The architecture employed in Venturi’s argument was a vast asset for fostering the American intellect and administrating the state and republic. According to Venturi’s argument, Monticello will be grounded on the limitless liberty of humanity. He also thought that a reasonable system of or der administrated the natural world, and by applying scientific policies, man’s condition could be greatly

High blood pressure Essay Example for Free

High blood pressure Essay Smoking does stunt your growth which, as well as it giving high blood pressure. When someone hangs around a smoker, they are actually inhaling the smoke, which would make them a passive smoker. A passive smoker is worse than actually being a smoker because breathing the smoke from the air is worse than taking it in through your mouth as it would cause blockages in the nose. Smoking can always cause headaches and colds and it can also give you very bad cough, also known as smoker cough. The thing that makes smoking so addictive is the nicotine that is inside them. They can be replaced with nicotine patches when and if decided to stop. Smoking also can affect your social life as it can cause arguments and it can also means sometimes it would mean you would be left alone outside smoking away while all your friends are inside as they dont smoke. Also the lose of money from smoking is becoming more and more as they are increasing the prices of the cigarettes as the government are tying to prevent people to smoke, and so by you wasting your money on small cancer sticks is pointless. Smoking can also leads to drugs, because it first starts with smoking cigarettes and then it would go further and start smoking drugs. This can completely change the individuals life around. Smoking also affects the eyesight of the individual from the conclusions that they would have to start wearing glasses. Smoking can also be the main causes of strokes, someone collapsing and some to become paralysis. Asthma is the biggest problem when it comes to smoking because smoking damages the lungs and a person who has asthma would already have a bad set of lungs. And so when someone is smoking around them, it could make it even worse and allow them to have a fatal attack. All of this start of somewhere and it is usually when the individual is a teenager because they would want to just try it. And then they would not be able to control themselves and continue smoking for the rest of their lives. With some people smoking doesnt just happen just like that, they would be either forced through peer pressure or from the attitude just trying it out. Stopping smoking is not easy because it takes a lot of will power and determination because it can be extremely difficult, but the government provides a lot of help because they want the nation to become healthier. That is also another reason for the cigarettes being brought up in prices because they want to try to get people of them. There are products out there that can be brought to help you give up smoking like nicotine patches as well as little sticks that you can inhale which would make believe you that your smoking as it gives you the same feeling but you would not be inhaling any smoke which is safer for you and the people around. With some individuals, they try to stop completely all a sudden but it is them type of people that would either most likely go back and start smoking again, or not touch another one for the rest of your life, but for people who find it hard to stop smoking, there is help provided by the NHS and also on the internet as they would be happy to give advice.

Cost Benefit Analysis Economics Essay

Cost Benefit Analysis Economics Essay Introduction Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) is a technique which seeks to bring greater objectivity into the decision making. It is a well known evaluation technique that is extensively engaged by both public and private organisations to support the decision making process. It can be useful to almost any kind of decision in any kind of field. It is helpful to identify all the relevant benefits and costs of a particular scheme and to quantify them in monetary terms. The practice arrived in the United Kingdom in 1960s for use in the transportation sector. CBA techniques were extended to cover a wide range of applications, such as water resource management, motorways, nationalized industries, airport locations, forestry, recreational facilities and a wide range of urban investment projects (Paul, 2000). Private sector, direct monetary costs and benefits determines the profitability and increases the output and investment. All costs and benefits in public sector, affected by an investment must be evaluated in some other way. Welfare economics helps to resolve such issues as how to assess costs and benefits of a non-monetary environment how to assess the community benefits when no charge made for public facility and how to fiddle with the market failure. Cost Benefit Analysis CBA rests on the recognition of a potential Pareto development. The basis for this is the proposition that, a decision is justified if those who benefit from it could compensate by those who lose by it. Compensation needs not really occur. What is essential is that the expenses of a policy to those who suffer the costs are exceeded by the value that beneficiaries place on it. This may still remain on an adequate basis for judgment because CBA attempts to ascertain whether the resources are being used efficiently. It will often be the case that the occurrence of costs and benefits, i.e. who bears them, will moreover be very important. CBA may provide a framework designed to identify accurately where the costs and benefits fall, so that a political judgement may be completed as to their satisfactoriness. CBA is a widely used technique which evaluates public spending and aims to avoid inappropriate distribution of public resources. In theory, it helps public decision-makers to invest only in the projects that create more profitability from the viewpoint of the community. To function perfectly, the CBA procedure needs to be engaged prior to the decision is made, so that the potential of the range of project proposals can be compared and evaluated. It aims to evaluate the set of direct and indirect effects of a project, its financial and non- financial effects on the set of economic agents concerned with the investment. These effects are then synthesized, after monetary evaluation, to assure a socio-economic balance which establishes the return on the investment, with this return being estimated on the basis of specific indicators (Auzannet, 1997). According to Boardman et al. (2006) the major steps in CBA are as follows; Specify the set of alternative projects Decide whose benefits and cost count Catalogue the impacts and select measurement indicators Predict the impacts quantitatively over the life of the project Monetize (attach dollar values to) all impacts Discount benefits and costs to obtain present values Perform sensitivity analysis Make a recommendation History and Uses of CBA At present, CBA is being used in both government and international organization. While certain concepts of the technique oriented from Europe in 1840s, the use of CBA in environmental economics is relatively a new incidence which is becoming recognized after regulations were set by the US government. And this made the use of CBA compulsory in the 1930s (E.J. Mishan and Euston, 2007). It was used to generate a solution toward the problems of water provision. After World War II, there was pressure towards the efficiency in government and the search was on for ways to make sure that the public funds were efficiently utilised in major public investments. This resulted in the beginnings of the fusion of the new welfare economics, which was essentially a Cost-Benefit Analysis and practical decision-making. This particular process arrived in the United Kingdom in 1960s in support of the transportation sector. It was applied to the construction of M1 motorway and the Victoria line on the und erground (Economic Labour Market Review, December 2008). In recent years, it is recognised as the major appraisal technique for public investments and public policy. Principles of CBA There are eight basic principles under this CBA ((S.L. Kirama, 2010). These are; There must be a common unit of measurement CBA valuations should represent consumers or producers valuations as revealed by their actual behaviour. Benefits are usually measured by market choices Some measurements of benefits require the valuation of human life The analysis of project should involve a with or without comparison CBA involves particular study area Double counting of benefits or costs must be avoided Decision criteria projects Emergence of CBA CBA allows different projects to be ranked according to highest expected net gains in social wellbeing. This gives important limitations of government spending. The main stages in CBA approaches are (Geoff Riley, 2006), Calculation of social costs and benefits. This includes direct costs, indirect costs and the benefits Sensitivity analysis of event occurring Discounting the future value of benefits Comparing the costs and benefits Comparing the net rate of benefits The Application of CBA In the private sector, financial CBA is used to justify equipment and technology investment, measure life cycle costs, meet regulations cost-effectively and quantify hidden costs and intangible benefits. It is also useful to demonstrate how outsourcing and leasing can result in cost savings and how quality improvements can affect returns. Social CBA is being used to evaluate the social merit of projects or policies. In practice CBA vary between countries and sectors within countries. The main differences include the types of impacts that are being included as costs and benefits within the assessment procedure. This is an extent to which the impacts are expressed in monetary terms and difference in discount rate between countries. The public CBA may also vary from private CBA (S.L. Kirama, 2010). CBA is likely to have its main usage within the public sector where (J. Harve and E. Jowsey, 2004); Price signals are insufficient to guide investment decisions Spill-over benefits and costs are important owing to the magnitude of the schemes The wellbeing of unborn generations has to be allowed Key Concepts in CBA There are some key concepts in CBA. There are; present value, discount rates, opportunity costs, cost and benefits, discounting, net present value, shadow prices, etc. (J. Harve and E. Jowsey, 2004). Government Decision- making Government may take the form of regulation such as building regulation to reduce fire hazards, taxes or subsides or providing goods and services. The main difficulty in many public-sectors is that the goods are provided free of charge or below the market price. So they are forced to focus on short-term special effects of the financial system and the long-standing sustainability of the public finances. Government decisions depend on subjective political considerations. For example, obtaining a social mix council housing may be providing an expensive residential area. However, public investments have serious defects. The one-man, one-vote principle does not weight votes according to the intensity of welfare gain or lost. Therefore, majority of the decision allow two voters marginally in favour of a scheme to outvote one who strongly opposes it in spite of the fact that the sum of their benefits is less than the costs impose on the single opponent. Political decisions are important one-sided. Economic efficiency in resource allocation requires that objective criteria should be used as far as it is feasible. The extension of government involvement in the economy has increased the weight and complexity of decisions which needs to be made at government level. Many argument says that decentralisation of decision-making is desirable. Application to Construction Industry Government is basically responsible for roads, bridges, airports, parks, amenity land, new urban areas and housing. CBA is normally being favoured by many transportation economists. It assesses the entire benefits and costs associated with highway project, including both capital and user costs. In this case, project requires less cost but provides more benefits right through the analysis period which are chosen first. CBA estimates the costs in monetary terms. Traditionally, a benefit-cost ratio, net present value or internal rate of return is being used. Recent research suggests that the net present value (NPV) may provide the best project selection measure if the transportation program is under financial constraints (Reed and Rutherford, 1997). The Use of Cost-Benefit Analysis in Transportation Sector Transportation policy and scheduling decisions often engage tradeoffs between conflicting objectives. Most highway cost allocation and investment evaluation studies are primarily concerned with direct market costs, such as road construction and maintenance, travel time, vehicle operating costs and crash damages. These vary depending on vehicle type and roadway conditions. They assume that the total amount of vehicle travel does not change, so were unconcerned with vehicle ownership and parking costs. Other types of studies incorporate environmental impacts, primarily air pollution, but sometimes it also includes noise and water pollution, and various other categories of land usage impact. Some studies have only considered external costs avoiding the internal ones. CBA is extensively used within the transportation segment. CBA of transportation investment projects tend to neglect long-term environmental consequences and needs among the community group with a low ability to pay. It has been emerged as one of the most used tools in deciding the viability of proposed infrastructure projects. The predictions regarding the impact of such projects are often problematic uncertain. The transport modelling tools are used in order to estimate positive as well as the negative impacts. Case Study Heathrow Terminal 5 In this case, the British Airport Authority (BAA) planning to build terminal 5 the cost is approximately around  £4 billion. Planning application was submitted in February 1993 (Heathrow T5, October 2005). They were considering the following benefits, such as Economic growth: Demand for air travel in south-east England is forecasted to be doubled in the next 20 years, making the expansion seems to be essential within the Air travel industry. This in turn might create thousands of jobs and businesses depending on the Heathrow airport expansion in order to provide sufficient supply capacity to meet the growing demand. An increase in the capacity of Heathrow will make maximum usage of airports existing infrastructure and land. The economy and trade: if it does not meet demand, UK will lose its airlines and foreign investments within the other European regions. The benefits of a world-beating industry would be reduced. Therefore, many sectors of our aviation industry will have a comparative advantage and might add huge sums to our balance of payments. Jobs: This project will create job opportunities which are estimated to be around 16,500. And it may also create 6,000 construction jobs during the building phase. This will have multiplier effects on the local / regional and national economy. Transport: The terminal will be the centre of a world-class transport exchange, with new Tube and rail links. Car traffic would rise only slightly. The social costs of increased traffic congestion have been exaggerated by the environmentalists. Environment: The site which has been allocated for terminal 5 is currently a disused sludge works. And any displace wildlife and plant life will be carefully relocated. The noise climate around Heathrow Airport has been improving for many years, even despite the fact that the number of aircraft movements has increased considerably partly due to the phasing out of older, nosier aircraft. Noise and night flight: BAA promises no increase in overall noise levels or in night flights. The number of flights will be increased by 8%. (Source: http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2-micro-cost-benefit-analysis.html) Objections are being raised against this project but those were not enough to refuse the planning permission. Conclusion CBA provides a rational technique for the evaluation of projects where market information is either non-existent or deficient. But it should not make false claims for objectivity by dealing in precise sums. However it is helpful for decision-making purposes, it is not an alternative for it. Further, CBA is potentially a useful aid towards planning decisions and it does not avoid the need to make value judgements in the evaluation of intangible arising from different projects. The overall conclusions are to be drawn from the assessment of costs and benefits. However, such value judgements are made clear in the evaluation decision making process.

Analysis of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Essay -- Brave New World

Analysis of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was published in 1932 after two major global events- World War Two from 1914-1918 and The Great Depression of 1929-1933. These two events changed the way people saw the world and made people see the events were beyond the control of individuals and even governments. Also at this time the world was seeing the rise in technology and the view that science could help solve some of the problems. Much of the technology has been developed because of the war and the mass of people had suffered because of it. All problems with society led to a rise in totalitarian regimes such as those in Russia, Italy and Germany. Huxley uses the novel to question the usefulness of the one party state and shows how it eliminates freedom for the individual. Also in his dystopia, he looks at many areas that we have in our own society such as family, relationships, education, social classes and the role of the individual in society. He shows how far the new world has moved away from nature- they even condition the children to avoid it. The reservation is the only place that has nature and spirituality but it also has its own set of problems that come with freedom. Themes In The Wild: In BNW nature has been eliminated in the ‘civilised’ world and individuals are conditioned to avoid it. For example, in chapter 2, we see babies who crawl towards flowers and books and are conditioned to avoid them by noise, bells and electric shocks. The children are being conditioned because ‘A love of nature keeps no factories busy’. We see the psychological training show its effect in Lenina’s reaction to any form of the natural world. For example, her reaction ... ... Sebastian is brilliant but alone; Deckard is alone as is Tyrell who is symbolically a ‘God’ and is the most powerful man in the film. Even people on the street seem hurried and alienated, struggling to survive. Their attitude to nature is non-existent because for most people the natural world doesn’t exist anymore. Some individuals, like replicants, carry memories but nothing real seems to exist. People relationship with and attitudes to nature is complex in both BNW and BR. In the BNW individuals who live in the city are conditioned to hate nature and this is life long. Those that live on the Reservation struggle to survive and nature is a complex and difficult part of their lives. The setting in BR has eliminated the natural world and consumed all of its resources. The people have little or no nature to relate to and these determine their attitude.

Applied Concept Paper: Critical Thinking Structures for Business Ethics Essay

Executive Summary The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate my understanding of the previously mentioned fundamental concepts and capability in order to relate them to the actual business world through applications of my critical thinking skills. Key concepts such as ethics, social responsibility, whistle-blowers, sustainability, stakeholders, and environmental stewardship are mentioned in Chapters 3 and 4 of (Wheelen, 2012). This paper discusses recent articles regarding ethics in the Atlanta Public School Systems, a violation of the code of ethics by the former HealthSouth CFO back in 2010, and Wal-Mart’s latest ethics controversy. In addition, this paper targets important concepts such as social responsibility, sustainability; environmental stewardship and how they affect the stakeholders of Patagonia Clothing Company, Carlportland, U.S Silica and Lucky Stone Company. These companies have proven themselves to be in the forefront of sustainability initiatives through their everyday practice s. From this research, I learned that adhering to the Code of Ethics in the business world is important on many levels. It guides all managerial decisions, creating a common framework upon which all decisions are founded. In order for companies to fully meet their social responsibility, they should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical and human rights concerns into their business operations and core strategy. Furthermore, the concept of sustainability has come to the vanguard of the global understanding that economics, environmental health and human well-being are interconnected. This ultimately demonstrates that generating high-quality products in a responsible way increases brand reputation, competitive advantage, and most importantly financial success. Abstracts * Investigation into APS Cheating Finds Unethical Behavior Across Every level This article talks about how across the Atlanta Public School system (APS), staff members worked in secret to cheat on testing results. The report accuses top district officials along with school teachers and administrators, of wrongdoing which had been happening for years. In some schools, cheating became a routine, a part of administrative duties during the annual state examinations. It grew into an organized crime of falsifying test results for children who could not score high enough to meet the district’s self-imposed goals. In addition, Beverly Hall, former superintendent, and her top aides, lied to top investigators, destroyed and altered public records, tampered with information, and misled police to avoid taking responsibly for their unethical behaviors. This resulted in a culture of fear, intimidation, and retaliation in the APS. * Former Health South CFO Talks to Business Students About Wo rkplace Ethics This article discusses the ethical challenges that many CFOs face in the workplace. Aaron Beam, former HealthSouth CFO, served prison time for forging the company’s finances and breaking the code of ethics. Beam warned students of the ethical dangers in today’s workforce. He mentioned why accountants and CFOs get trapped into lying, and feel intimidated by their superiors. In this article, Bean touches on many important points, such as, how money changes people, how having more personal possessions does not guarantee happiness, and most importantly, how we need to stand by our principles and ethics all the time. After spending three months in the Montgomery jail, Beam learned his lesson; he wrote a book, opened a lawn service business, and decided to share his experience with business students in universities across the nation. * Wal-Mart’s Ethics Controversy This article debates how an employee ended up jobless after following the Wal-Mart ethics guidelines. Chalace Epley Lowry started working for Wal-Mart in January of 2006, and after a few days at the job, she witnessed unethical behavior from the VP of her department. Lowry suspected that Ms. Williams, the VP of Corporate Communications might have traded inside information about the company’s stock. She questioned it and filed a formal complaint with her immediate supervisor; she thought that it was the honorable thing to do. In return, her identity got disclosed to the offender, making it uncomfortable in her position since Mona Williams was effectively her boss. Also, she got a lower performance review, and when she complained, she was told to find another job. * Patagonia: Blueprint for Green Business The above article is the story of how Patagonia, an outdoor-clothing and equipment firm, and its founder, Yvon Chouinard, took his passion for the outdoors and turned into a successful business. By conducting business in a non-traditional way, Chouinard created a company with a different outdoor style that makes $270 million in yearly revenues. This organization is among one of the first in America to provide onsite daycare, as well as both maternity and paternity leave, and flextime. Patagonia reuses materials, questions growth, ignores fashion, makes goods that last, and discontinues profitable products. With a laidback atmosphere for employees, its production is at full capacity. Mr. Chouinard’s biggest dream is to turn Patagonia into a totally sustainable, ECO friendly company, where people enjoy coming to work, and he can sleep well at night. * Pursuing Sustainability Business Initiatives, a Large Business In this article, the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA) recognizes their large producers’ member companies, which are pursuing sustainability initiatives through their everyday practices. The first one, CalPortland Company, one of the major producers of Portland cement, has been pursuing environmental stewardship for years. The second one, Lucky Stone Company, one of the largest family-owned and operated aggregates companies in the U.S, has an excellent environmental reputation. And the third one, U.S. Silica, is a leading producer of industrial minerals which recently adopted a formal sustainability policy. This article also emphasizes what these companies have in common and highlights the benefits companies will obtain by making sustainable decisions now. Concepts Ethics is defined by the textbook as the consensually accepted standards of behavior for an occupation, a trade, or a profession. There is no worldwide standard of conduct for business people. This is especially true given the global nature of business activities. Cultural norms and values vary between countries, ethnics groups and even among geographic regions (Wheelen, 2012). A Code of ethics specifies how an organization expects its employees to behave while on the job. â€Å"A code of ethics, (1) clarifies company expectations of employees conduct in various situations and (2) makes clear that the company expects its people to recognize the ethical dimensions in decisions and actions.† (Wheelen, 2012). Whistle-blowers are defined by the author of the textbook as those employees who report illegal or unethical behavior on the part of others. Even though the Sarbanes-Oxley Act forbids firms from retaliating against anyone reporting unethical acts, 82% of those who uncovered fraud reported being ostracized, demoted or pressure to quit (Wheelen, 2012). The concept of Social Responsibility as it is explained in the textbook proposes that a private corporation has responsibilities towards the society that extend beyond making a profit. Many business people have agreed upon the main responsibilities of a business, which are Economic, Legal and Ethical. Being socially responsible does provide a firm a more positive overall reputation (Wheelen, 2012). Sustainability may include more than just ecological concerns and the natural environment. It can also include economic and social aspects. In the business environment, in order for a firm to be sustainable, it must be successful over a long period of time; and it must satisfy all of its economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary responsibilities (Wheelen, 2012). Stakeholders are a large group of people with interest in a business organization’s activities. This group gets affected by the achievements or failures of the firm’s objectives (Wheelen, 2012). Some examples of Key Stakeholders are: creditors, directors, employees, government agencies, shareholders, suppliers, unions, and the community where the business operates. Environmental Stewardship refers to responsible use and protection of the natural environment through conservation and sustainable practices. Environmental stewardship defined in simple terms as â€Å"dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it† (Leopold, 2013). Analysis The article about the APS unethical practices touches on one important concept: Ethics. For years the Atlanta School District produced gains on state curriculum test by cheating on student’s exams. Years of misconduct took place at all levels of the organization, from the top of the chain of command to the Superintendent’s office. The cheating prevented many struggling students from getting the extra help they needed (Vogell, 2011). It also created an atmosphere of stress and deception among school employees. Top investigators in the case came up with three possible reasons that cheating flourished in APS. 1. The district set unrealistic goals, and pensions and raises were based on the test results. 2. Because the target test results rose every time the school reached the goal, the pressure rose. Cheating was, therefore, the only way to obtain the results. 3. The top officials refused to accept responsibility. However, I disagree with those three reasons. Just because g oals are unattainable, that does not mean we have to act unethically. Once the cheating started, it could not be stopped. It collapsed on itself, as lying usually does. If top leaders refused to take responsibility, it was their choice. We, as individuals, have to be responsible for our own actions. Teachers are responsible for helping students become better members of society; this includes teaching them good citizenship skills. There are always grey areas in professional codes of ethics because there are many areas that are subjective. Personal integrity and honesty are required by all who agree to follow a code of ethics. If an educator observes someone practicing unethical behavior, it is his/her duty to report such behavior through the proper administrative channels. In the article that talks about the former CFO of HealthSouth, Aaron Beam, he warned students about the ethical challenges that are in the workplace. I especially enjoyed this article because it touches an important subject, the code of ethics. Even the most ethically-aware professionals find their standards challenged on a daily basis . As accountants, part of the code is to represent the public interest, and sometimes that may mean putting it ahead of the company’s interest. As a CFO, that duty is heightened. In addition, the first people employees look to are the CEO and CFO to see if they have a real commitment to ethics. If they behave unethically, employees are likely to do so as well. A respectable CFO must be able to stand up to his/her boss with integrity and to speak unpleasant truths when necessary. Not only can inappropriate behavior lead to compliance failures, fraud, and theft, but the consequences can adversely affect employee morale and the firm’s reputation. An ethical framework is built by making the right choices in the little things. â€Å"Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching† (annonymus). In the third article about Wal-Mart, we see an employee who is following the company’s code of ethics and acts as a Whistle-blower when she suspected an unethical act was committed by her department head. It is important to note that â€Å"Wal-Mart prides itself on having one of the strictest and most st ringent ethics policies in the retail industry† (Gogoi, 2007). However, that was not true in this case. Instead of rewarding Ms. Lowrey for such a heroic act, her identity got exposed, and she was encouraged to find another job within the company in 90 days. She even experienced a lower performance evaluation after the incident. She felt disappointed to see the way an ethics complaint was handled by a corporation like Wal-Mart. Most of Wal-Mart scandals are perpetuated by a culture of silence. Rather than addressing the concerns that are affecting workers across the country, Wal-Mart has attempted to silence those who speak out for changes that would help the company, workers, and the community. As front line Wal-Mart workers are facing hardships, the company is making almost $16 billion a year in profits. Meanwhile, the Walton Family (heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune), are the richest family in the country. All of this has taken a toll on Wal-Mart’s image. Some people will not shop at Wal-Mart because they do not want to support a company t hat they perceive is unfair to its workers. Reading about Patagonia got my attention, since I have purchased their outdoor products without really knowing the company’s history. This unique business is conducted upside down and inside out. Decades before recycling became a common practice, Patagonia was already reusing materials. The company’s founder believed in putting the Earth first, by attaining sustainable practices, while making unbelievable profits ($270 million in revenues yearly). This company would not release toxins into rivers or chase endless growth. All of Patagonia’s products are produced with the highest level of quality and manufactured in the most socially responsible way. Patagonia became the first company in California to use renewable sources, like wind and solar energy, to power all its buildings and one of the first to print catalogs on recycled paper. With a payroll of 350 employees, the boss greets them by name. At the sweatshops facility, workers overlook a playground of the comp any’s day care facility. The people that works there are anything but slackers: â€Å"it was impressive to see how involved in sustainability their employees are,† said Matt Kristle, a senior vice president of Sam’s Club (Casey, 2007). In addition, the owners agree to keep Patagonia privately held and say no to anything that may compromise their values. Also, a good portion of the company’s profits is being donated to grass roots organizations, $26 million since 1985. As a company, all of the stakeholders are really committed to doing the right thing. That is why Patagonia serves as a blueprint for future businesses that want to follow this path. In the last article I chose, there are three companies within the same industry that pursue sustainability initiatives through their everyday practices. They all agree that environmental stewardship and social responsibility can interact to increase stakeholder value as well as shareholder value, (Schlett, 2011). U.S Silica, CalPortland and Luck y Stone voluntarily assist their communities in resolving the issues that affect them. For example, CalPortland, does material donations for the City of DuPont’s war memorial. Lucky Stone collaborates with the James River Association to create a spawning reef for the endangered Atlantic sturgeon species. U.S. Silica’s effort to protect an endangered turtle species near Pennsylvania plant is admirable, as well as helping feed local homeless people once a month. By helping their communities to resolve social issues, these companies are helping themselves by increasing brand value and reputation, improving their license to operate, and reducing their risks. Conforming to environmental laws is not enough anymore. Consequently, pursing environmental stewardship elevates an organization into the â€Å"Risk Management† category. And that, when implemented together with social responsibility initiatives for greener products and processes, moves the company into the â€Å"Business and Sustainable Development.† A good example of that is that all three companies have been working through their environmental management systems to go beyond compliance by implementing Best Management Practices. By encouraging a culture of environmental and social stewardship, these three large producers are at the forefront of sustainability, and as a result they are recognizing financial and sustainable success. Conclusion After carefully analyzing all the articles, I came to the conclusion that all those concepts are intrinsically related. It is important to understand that business ethics go beyond legal issues. Ethical conduct builds trust among individuals and in business relationships, which validates and promotes confidence between people. One of the principal causes of unethical behavior in organizations today is overly aggressive financial or business objectives. Abusive or intimidating behavior is another of the most common ethical problems for employees. Making ethical choices is sometimes the most difficult thing, especially when the one losing out is you or your business. Yet, for the greater good and the sake of mankind, one has to look at business as well as personal ethics and evaluate them periodically. All professions have a set of values that are the cornerstone of their belief system and the foundation of their practice. A Code of Ethics is important on many levels. It sets the â€Å"tone from the top† of the company’s culture. An effective Code of Ethics establishes the ethical expectations for employees and management alike and sets forth the mechanisms for enforcement and consequences of noncompliance. There are four dimensions of social responsibility: economic, legal, ethical, and voluntary, including philanthropic. Earning profits is the economic foundation of any company, and complying with the law is the next level. However, a business whose sole objective is to maximize profits is not likely to consider its social responsibility, although its activities will probably be legal. Sustainability is the balance between people and the environment. Air, water, and land are all impacted by the behavior and actions of human beings, but these impacts can be controlled. The challenge for companies in the twenty-first century is developing an environmentally responsible strategy that keeps them ahead of the game, helping them maintain an advantageous position in the marketplace. It is not enough to simply check boxes, publish a sustainability report, or reduce waste in factories. Companies must be truly innovative in terms of how they manage their relationship with the environment. 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